Brush Knee and Step Forward

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Brush Knee and Step Forward

Postby Silkreeler37 » Fri Jan 10, 2014 6:16 pm

I have a question regarding Twist the Body Brush Knee and Step forward in Yang Style taiji barehand sequence. In Dr. Yang's version, he bypasses the the "twist the body" part of the movement. He also bypasses the Yin/Yang hands in said posture in which one palm face up and the other down. Instead, he circles the hand beside the ear and then steps forward with a push that settles the wrist at the end, whereas most other versions of Yang style simply has you follow the pushing hand with the eyes with the palm pretty much facing forward for the entire push. I cut my teeth on Dr. Yang's version, and have only recently been made aware of this discrepancy in the movement when it was pointed out that Yang's version tends to tense the shoulder and raises the elbow. The same thing happens in his version of Press (ji) in which he has the right arm horizontal with the elbow facing out rather than down. Dr. Yang has a very penetrating mind, and there always seems to be a valid reason for everything he does, so any help here would be very much appreciated. Thanks!
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Re: Brush Knee and Step Forward

Postby Dvivid » Tue Jan 21, 2014 8:43 am

Every movement of Dr. Yang's taijiquan form is about the martial application. I assume you've seen this video?
http://ymaa.com/publishing/internal/tai ... ations_DVD

Image

I think the "twist the body" is there within the movement as subtle spring-loading the torso using the spine and chest bows, but the twisting is not plainly visible as you see in other forms.
"Avoid Prejudice, Be Objective in Your Judgement, Be Scientific, Be Logical and Make Sense, Do Not Ignore Prior Experience." - Dr. Yang

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Re: Brush Knee and Step Forward

Postby Silkreeler37 » Wed Jan 29, 2014 5:38 pm

I figured it was there somewhere. The main reason I was asking is that I noticed that, in practice, twisting the body takes much of the tension out of the shoulder of the striking arm. But Master Yang doesn't specify that spring-loaded aspect in his Taiji For Beginners DVD. Thanks for the clarification, David.
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Re: Brush Knee and Step Forward

Postby chh » Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:18 pm

I don't have the Yang Tai Chi for Beginners DVD (although I think it looks really well organized and beautifully shot), but I've watched the available clips of it.

You can see Dr. Yang twisting his body during brush knee in the DVD trailer on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YonmpJvwmKM at 3m 18s.

He's as turned to the right as you can reasonably get as the right hand reaches back and the left hand gets to the top of its yin coil.

Right after that there's a nice shot of him doing the move in another setting with jing, where you can really see the an energy/settling of the hand at the extreme part of it.
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